11 Comments
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Aimee Bissonette's avatar

You deserve the pay out. Fourteen of your books, for crying out loud! Treat yourself to something special. :)

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Darcy Pattison's avatar

Oh, my daughter already has the money spent on trips. Ha! We shall see.

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Aimee Bissonette's avatar

Those darn kids!

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Gabi's avatar

One of my books is included in the settlement! Thank for bringing my attention to this suit and for the much needed reminder to register all of my books for copyright (something I've been negligent about).

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Joy Archer's avatar

DARCY. This is amazing news! I hope the flow of cash from Big Tech to your pocket is easy like Sunday morning. Woo!

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Siski Kalla's avatar

So interesting. I am curious as to where this leaves authors who don’t register copyright (in the UK it’s supposedly automatic). I wonder if that affects how their books are dealt with in regard to this.

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Darcy Pattison's avatar

There's a good FAQ on the settlement site. I'd look there to see if there's any information.

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Siski Kalla's avatar

Unfortunately the FAQ page doesn’t seem to be working. But I did find out, via the Society of Authors, that UK authors do indeed need to have US copyright registered in order to be included in a claim. My earlier books (pre kidlit) were on the LibGen list but not this one. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out in other countries too.

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Darcy Pattison's avatar

Yes, it's a U.S. lawsuit and I think other countries are dealing with the question of AI using copyrighted material, too. I think it will come down to Fair Use, which means the AI can use any book to train. That's what this lawsuit decided. But then, they used a "pirated database" which is where they got caught.

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David A. Kelly's avatar

Good article, but I think there's a good chance that traditionally published authors may have to split the money with their publisher, based on what I've read, minus lawyers take as well.

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Darcy Pattison's avatar

Yes! They recommend a 50-50 split, but it will definitely depend on the contract signed. For authors whose work was NOT registered according to contract, it will be sticky to work out.

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